Settlers confiscate more land from Yasuf village

On February 4th, settlers from the illegal Israeli settlement of Kfar Tappuah began clearing land for building outposts, despite the fact that this land legally belongs to the Palestinian village of Yasuf.

The settlers brought a bulldozer with them to clear village fields, and it is expected that extensions of Kfar Tappuah in the form of trailer outposts will be erected in the next few days.

Yasuf village, which is located in the Salfit region, has already lost over 1500 dunums of land in the creation of the nearby settlements of Ariel, Rechel and Kfar Tappuah, along with two smaller outposts.

Yasuf land is now almost completely surrounded by these settlements, as well as an Israeli-only road that connects Ariel and Rechel settlements that villagers are prohibited from accessing. Large parts of village land have been declared closed military zones by the army, which forbids Palestinians from being in these areas. This allows settlers to more easily confiscate land for expansion, even though it is still legally owned by Palestinians.

Yasuf residents, who often face harassment from the illegal settlers, can only view the work of the bulldozer from roughly 1 km away. If they approach any closer, they risk attack from the armed settlers or arrest from Israeli forces stationed nearby, but do nothing to stop this illegal confiscation of land.